The Doorkeeper
by taolakhoai
Summary: Set in the world of Pillar of Eternity. Deep inside The Living Land, overlooking an abandoned town, stand a forgotten fortress said to be guarded by demons. The myths tell of armies marched toward the fortress only to never be heard again. The truth, however, is sometime stranger than fiction.
1. Chapter 1

It had even forgotten its name. It is a skeleton, after all, and name is but a social construct used to identify an individual. There is no society in this empty citadel, and its name had not been said out loud for a very very long time.

It is pretty sure that its name exist in a parchment inside the fourteen chamber, where the roster of the legion lay. There is where its name written alongside its peer, and it had read it for several time before the degradation had threaten the parchment's survival. It now had lock the chamber under several chains and locks, making sure that the parchment will survive. There is a bit of hope that remain inside its bosom, which would be one day where its duty end. A forlorn hope, but there are enough things to be depressed about and it wouldn't want to be emo.

As usual, it monotonously swept the floor of the main hall, scrubbed the tinted glass above the altar, offered a little prayer and collected the many artifacts. All wares inside the citadel are either made of silver or gold, not because its owner were rich, but simply because those are not of metal or stone are prone to be destroyed by the passage of time. The oakwood benches and tables that made up the main hall and the joint chambers are the sole exception to this rule. All personal rooms's funiture had been replaced by iron equivalents after around the fifth time the wood replacement break down and make everything a mess. Iron materials are not lacking here.

Then it feels something from the East side. It has felt this sensations many times before. Intruders from the enemy side. Likely another batch of iron material and cloth it can use, or it final demise. Whatever they may be, they will be helpful.

It couldn't help but feel unhappy that it thinks that dying and forfeiting its duty is a good thing.

It ran to the armory and took all his gears. Number one to seven, those are weapons chained to its existence, and these things grow strong with each passing day, absorbing magical energy from the undirected circuits distributed across the citadel. It mostly love them for that they never rust, and the fact that for the better part of its years it had never seen anything that can even come close. Champions of invading army can put their back into a hammer blow, and that wouldn't even make a dent on the breastplate. Thick reinforced siege engines broke in two with a halfhearted cleave from its sword. Its bow have neither strings nor arrows, yet one loose sends a hail of arrows flying that would tear apart shield formations. It has some doubt that its gear may not be this way at the start, but again, time had made it forgetful.

With a leap, it reached the East wall. Only five targets. Utterly disappointing, but a job is a job.

It dropped on the first intruder and the appearance make it pause. It is quite certain that 'that' is not an enemy. The invader have pale skin and black hair, and there is no trace of horns or hooves or branches anywhere. The appearance is actually reminding it of something, but it wasn't sure.

Let's capture this thing, it decided. It turned the pommel up and struck at the unsuspecting thing. The thing exploded into a shower of gore, the skull practically smashed into the spine. Rats. It looked at the deformed corpse before trying to shrug and turning to the next invader.

Didn't work. Even with something as light as possible, the next invader's neck was snapped with an audible crack. It finally decided to screw the subtle approach, and seized the next one by the collar. This one is a little bit on the brown side with long hair and protrusion on the body. It ignored the thing's wimper and hang the invader on the tallest tree branch he can find. The two other remaining companion didn't fare better, but one at least attempted to fight back once and broke their arm punching him in the chest. The one who did not resist appear to be the leader of the group, another brown thing with weirdly colorful hair that remind it of an ostrich.

When all is done, it attempted to tie all of them up, which ends up nearly choking the hell out of the broken arm one. It ended up grudgingly allow them to tie themselves up to a reasonable degree and walk them back to the fortress. They were murmuring among each other, but it did not care.


	2. Chapter 2

It talks to them a little, but their story was too ridiculous to be true. There is only one passage through the Fiery Range, on which his fortress stood. You can go by boat in the off chance that you can somehow cross the turf of the Aumaua on the West Sea. Claiming that they crossed the barren wasteland on the old kingdom's west was silly. It is not 'that' senile.

But then again, it is quite unwilling to just kill off the human that had come here – whether they came here on the order of the enemy or what they were saying was true, they have walked quite far. So it makes a compromise and throw all of them into the dungeon. It is neglected for too long that all the bars are gone and the locks are no longer where it last left them, so it had to put up with blocking the main prison door with a large stone. The three human stand agape as it effortlessly rolls the oval-shaped slab of stone right up the door, nearly crushing the frame and the broken-arm guy in the process.

Then it went to sleep and forget all about them. It rediscovered the bunch two weeks later when it is finally the time to clean up the yard and he suddenly heard a debate about eating vermins. They didn't found any, though. The guy whose arm was broken didn't make it through. The corpse stink.

It wracked its non-existent brain to figure out how to wring the truth out of these guys. Then a lightbulb finally went on in its head. Long ago, when the hall was populated with warriors and devotees of the order, the high priest used a device that can differentiate between truth and lie. The aptly named Lie-Detector remain on a chest in the priest's personal chamber, and for the unlife of it it cannot figure out why such an artifact with great ultility could possibly be kept in one man's possession.

Finally, with great difficulty, it manages to salvage the artifact from the myriads of powderized cloth fragments and wood pieces littering the chest. To be prefectly honest, the artifact look shoddy. It is steel made, with an arrow between a board between 'right' green and 'wrong' red. It tries to pour some of its energy into the artifact but nothing happens. The tool rattles whenever it moves and the little level by the handle does absolutely nothing. It tried to use the artifact anyway.

"Am I a skeleton?"

Yes. The arrow whirled a little before staying on the right.

"Am I alive?"

No. The arrow shook and turned, but eventually settled at the left. It asked the question again. This could simply be statistic. The arrow remained at the left.

"I have three prisoners in my fort."

No. It feels a small bit of joy. Maybe the artifact work, after all?

"They all have brown skin." Yes. "The room on the left is the commander's room." Yes. "I am a sergeant." No.

It froze. But it is a sergeant. It considered chucking the thing off the window for the major disappointment the tool was. Then it realized – it is actually an acting-in sergeant only, temporary promoted on the field when the sergeant controlling its joint squad was slain by a great enemy. So the tool was right.

Renewed with hope, it dashed out to the two obedient but lying people outside. The conversation then proceeded swiftly.

"Alright, question time."

"Urg, not this again. We had been saying the truth this whole time, bonebag."

"Well, it will not be me who is judging anymore. Behold! The Lie Detector!"

"…"

"…You know, that look fake."

"Silent, unbeliever. This is indeed an artifact. I had seen it work before."

"Does it work now? Right now?"

"I tested it, and it is working fine. I am a skeleton."

Bing. Yes. The two remain skeptical.

"Can't you tried more?"

"I had. Anyway, this work. Tell me, what your purpose here is."

"Scouting."

Yes. So they were telling the truth on this one.

"Where did you all come from?"

"The western desert. We followed a trade caravan."

No. Red. It looked at the two and they angrily protest.

"That thing is busted!"

"It is broken! We are telling the truth!"

"Well then, say your answer again."

"We came from the west."

Red. No again. It looks at the two menacingly.

"I have given you the chance to tell the truth."

"We are!" The one with long hair complained again with a squeaching voice. The other one did not say anything and only harden his face. It sighed.

"It is showing otherwise. I had seen how this is done before, and I will trust my memory more than I trust you."

"We came from the west." The leader suddenly said. The arrow turned to yes. The long-haired one smiles triumphantly.

"See?"

"You could have came FROM the west. Now tell me that you two come through the west route."

"We came through the west route." The leader said again. The indicator turned to no.

"Still consistent. Then…"

"Wait." The leader said. "Can we test it for a moment? We will believe you if you do."

"Paul!"

"It is our only choice, Aera." The leader turned back and addressed his companion. "We are prisoner."

"Quit your drama and get on with it already." It chimed in. The leader then began to say his part.

"We came through the east route." No. "We came from the east." No. "We came from the west." Yes. "We came through the north route." Yes. "We came from the north." No. "We came from the south." No. "We came through the north route." Yes.

The leader was silent again. It believed that the person was finally giving up lying.

"So you two came by the north route. Must had been a rough ride."

"We did not came through the north!" The long haired one protested again. The artifact showed that was just another lie.

"It is too consistent to be simply chances." It returned the sentiment. "Now answer my question."

"First of all, let us clarify." The leader speaked again. "We are saying the truth, and your tool is wrong. Don't blame us when reality catches up on you." The arrow predictably turned to no. Defiant to the end, these liars.

"Are you in employment by the enemy?"

"What is the enemy?" The leader confusedly asked back. The arrow remain upright between the sides.

"The attackers that come to the land a long long time ago. Burning heads, red skin and a head taller than you. Their elites can shapeshift into something like a burning bear."

The two human looked at each other for a moment. "We have not heard of such thing." The indicator turn to red. It growled at them. "Think again."

The long-haired one sighed. "Fine, fine, we heard about them. They are in the south or something. Let's just say they have half the ground for themselves at the moment."

The indicator turned green. It shook its head at their folly. They shook theirs too, evidently frustrated for not being able to deceive it.

"Are you working for them?"

"No." They answered wearily, the leader making a smile that can be best described as surrendering. The arrow spinned until it landed on yes. The long-haired one make a fist of joy.

"Good. Did you came here on an order?"

"No." The arrow pointed left. "We came here to scout out on a dare." Still left. It only stared at them silently. "Fine, yes." The arrow pointed right. "We came because a nearby lord left a bounty for whoever bring back information from this part." No. "We came here because we were told to do so by an old man." No. "We came here because it is a part of our exploration mission." No. "We came here because we too are Stonesouls." Yes. "We came here because…"

It seized the other one's neck in a hurry. The leader took a moment before slowly, very slowly said the sentence again.

"We too are Stonesouls."

The arrow remained on green.


End file.
